Today's questions from from the E Unit 101 Class.

1. A photo of B&O 50 in Chicago shows a slightly streamlined front end, but the unit now at NMT in St Louis appears as a traditional box cab. Was B&O 50 rebuilt at some point?

2. I assume B&O 51 had a steam boiler when built. How often did E units need a water stop? Did the boiler use the same diesel fuel as the prime mover, or was a different fuel used. Did the boiler also require frequent fuel stops en route?

Thank you!

Wesley

The "shovel nose" streamlining was tacked on rather clumsily. The unit later went to the B&O controlled Chicago & Alton, who later relegated it to freight service. It had the nose addition removed and the front end restored.

Don't know all the B&O locations where water was added to locomotives with steam generators. Having lived in Garrett, IN from 1959 to 1962 I do know that all Eastbound passenger trains from Chicago got watered at Garrett. Garrett was 150 miles from Chicago, however, trains were put together at Robey Street Yard in Chicago and then backed to Grand Central Station about a hour before the scheduled departure - needless to say the locomotives would be producing steam from the time the train was assembled so that heat or air conditioning as necessary was working when passengers boarded the train at GCS.

The B&O E units would make Garrett with water still in the tanks, the F3's that the B&O bought and used in publicity photos of the new Strata Dome equipped Columbian had trouble making Garrett without running out of water. That was one of the reasons the B&O used to justify using the F3's, with their passenger gearing, in freight service on the Chicago Division between Willard and Chicago after steam was eliminated from the operation.

The first generation of diesels were given a 'rule of thumb' fuel efficiency of 2 gallons per mile. The EA's had fuel capacity of 1200 gallons, but the water capacity for the steam generator is not listed on my source - https://www.thedieselshop.us/Data%20EMD%20EA.HTML

After B&O #50 had its "shovel nose" removed it frequently was used as a trailing unit instead of leading, essentially as a B unit.

B&O 50 was usually assigned to the new, lightweight, Royal Blue in Jersey City-Wash-JC service before PRR had electric lcomotives running NY-Wash. Diesel 50 shared the train with experimental 350 psi 4-6-4 B&O 2 "Lord Baltimore." A water-tube firebox allowed the high pressure.

B&O controlled the Alton Route at this time and also introduced a new, lightweight, Abraham Lincoln for Chi-StL service. This train had a new, experimental 4-4-4 B&O 1 "Lady Baltimore," also with a water-tube firebox.

B&O President "Uncle Dan" Willard didn't like the lightweight cars and had Mt. Clare Shops modernize heavyweight cars for a new Royal Blue and streamline P-7 4-6-2 5304. The lightweight train, 4-6-4 B&O 2 and Diesel 50 all went to the Alton as the new Abraham Lincoln. The first Abraham Lincoln became the new Ann Rutledge.

5304's tenure on the Royal Blue was short because new EMC EA-EB sets arrived and one pair was assigned to the Royal Blue.

The box cabs, as well as the CB&Q shovel-nose Zephyrs, had their cabs at floor level which proved to be dangerous to the head end crew in accidents. The EA's had higher cabs with strengthened structure. Alton 50 received a form of shovel nose but when B&O EA 52 was transferred to the Alton, 50 became 52's B-unit.

Notably, PRR's original P5's had floor level cabs until there was a fatal collision with a vehicle. Production of P5a's was suspended and later units received a "Modified" carbody similar to the ones on R1 4800 and GG1 4899.

Alton 50 became GM&O 50 in 1947 and lost the shovel nose but worked local freight until retired. Fortunately GM&O donated it to the National Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood MO.

Phil Mulligan

And yes, unless I'm badly mistaken, the steam generators were set up to run on the same diesel used in the main engines.

Yes they were. Back in the early days at Spencer we dealt with a leaking main fuel tank by simply using the old steam generator tank instead in the E unit.